of penmanship, number work, and composition lithographed. The results were published in a pamphlet. Figures gave the per cents., town by town. The towns were lettered A, B, C, etc., so that no one knew the particular town so lettered. The pamphlet created a sensation. Many declared that the examination was not fair. They were astonished at the results. Later on an edition of the report came out, with the names of the towns given in full. Quincy had by far the highest per cent. and led in everything except mental arithmetic, and in that it stood third or fourth. This is the first time, so far as I know, that the foregoing statement has ever been made in public.

We learned that the children may be happy, may love to go to school, may never have a prize, reward or per cent., and still learn. In fact, the reason why students manage to escape knowledge is that knowledge and skill are made the sole aims and bribery the means of learning.

I might fill hours recalling the memories of Quincy and its schools, but to what end? The apparent success of the movement is easily explained. There was the opportunity, a faith, a spirit of work, an enthusiasm to find better things for God's little ones. The outcome cannot be explained by methods, devices and systems, by tricks of the trade, or by particular ways of doing things. What we did in Quincy was nothing new; it came directly from the

great authorities in education. What we did is now well-nigh universal; but the mere following of authority, however good, does not always count for progress, repetition of devices does not necessarily bring improvement.

We stand to-day at the beginning of an educational movement that means the salvation of the world and its elements are faith, spirit, openmindedness, and work. The teachers are not responsible for what wrong ideas may exist, nor can school committees be justly blamed. The common school was born of the people, it is supported by the people, and its faults are found in the people. The people must demand, and they will receive; they must knock, and it shall be opened unto them. We are bound by tradition, by medieval ways and deeply rooted prejudice. The good that has been done is simply a foretaste of what is to come. Our ideals are low. The future demands an education into free government, a strictly American education, an education to meet the demands of these times, with their world-problems that are weighing us down and the ever increasing duties of citizenship. I repeat, not by the guns of a Dewey or the battalions of Roberts or Kruger must these problems be worked out, but in the common school, where the quiet, devoted, studious, skilful teacher works out the nature and laws of life, complete living, and the righteousness that is to be.

HE northern association at Logansport and the northern at Danville were two great meetings. Each enrolled over 2,500 names. Both were strong in the interest shown and in the quality of instruction given.

The inaugural address of Superintendent J. N. Study as president of the northern association was an interesting, scholarly, and comprehensive discussion of the present trend and problems of education in America. He first reviewed the progress of education from the early civilization on the Nile up through the monastic and scholastic systems to the present education by the state, not only free but compulsory. He expressed his belief that the state's duty reaches from the kindergarten to and through the university. He showed how the new education seeks to apply the arts of learning to actual life,

educating the child in harmony with the spirit of the age in which he lives. "Dare to be wise and omit what does not belong to present life.” He pleaded for a broader professional preparation on the part of teachers, and for conditions that would make the tenure of his position safe. The whole tone of his address was earnest, sane and hopeful.

The series of addresses by O. T. Corson and David Starr Jordan was delightful and helpful. Mr. Corson talked in a general way of what the teacher should be and do, and of his relations to school and society. Dr. Jordan's addresses were more scientific, appealing to the scholarship of the teacher more than to his professional fitness.

The work of each instructor was thus in a large way supplementary to that of the other.

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In Mr. Corson's first address he pleaded for a renewal of faith in humanity, faith in childhood, faith in self. In making these appeals he discussed in an entertaining, helpful way many of the practical school problems. "A man who fills his position well is just as certain to raise to a higher level as the person who occupies a position above his level will sink to a lower one." His picture of the good school teacher was so simple that most teachers must have felt themselves capable of measuring up to the standard of earnest, cheerful devotion.

Speaking on the subject of "Tact in the Schoolroom," Mr. Corson said, "Tact can afford to sit sit still and smile while talent and genius are quarreling." A comparison of tact and skill showed a clear advantage in favor of the former. The great men have been men of great tact. The Great Teacher showed this in a remarkable degree. The closest second to tact, and the surest medium for cultivating it, is sympathy.

Mr. Corson's closing talk was on "Relation of the Superintendent to Teachers." Here, too, sympathy was considered the chief thing. The superintendent needs wisdom more than knowledge. "Wisdom is knowing what ought to be done next; virtue is doing it."

Dr. Jordan's addresses were for the most part scientific studies of certain historical movements. In his first discussion, on The Rise of the Common Man " he said there were four archenemies to democracy; namely, aristocracy, slavery, militarism, imperialism. The important fact in history is the rise of the common man. As we look back over the past we find that the importance of the king grows less. Each movement must be judged in its final results, by the greater strength or greater weakness of the people it concerns. The deeds of Napoleon were

writ on sand. The one fact which remained was the waste of the hearts' blood of France, a loss of strong life which a thousand years of peace could never restore.

Suppose for a moment that the German emperor and all his officials, every lord and every soldier, every semblance of power in Germany should pass away, what would result? How would men begin government again? How would it be in England, or France or Russia? Think this out for yourselves. How would it be

in the United States? We should be sorry to lose them at all, officials and officers and senators and soldiers. But it would not affect our action. Some veteran or some schoolmaster would call the people to order in each town and we should proceed to the election of officers. The power rests with us; we have only to start again.

The evening lecture by Dr. Jordan was from the subject "The Blood of the Nation." Its purpose was to establish the proposition that the blood of a nation, using the word blood in the sense of vitality, determines its history." Degeneration in the individual is the result of association, and degeneration in a nation is the result of removing the best, the fairest, the strongest.

He spoke of oppression, both social and religious, driving forth the good and the brave, resulting in the settling of America; of the effect of liquor in destroying the good and the pure. Neither beer nor wine, he said, was a strong agent for temperance or self control.

War for glory, war for commercial greed, he classed as the greatest evil in destroying the good, the brave and the best. He cited the history of nations, France, for example. When Napoleon let out the heart's blood of France, France was degraded. The Greeks of today were the sons of cooks, scullions and slaves of ancient Greece. Spain, too, was cited as an example of degeneration.

In speaking of the United States he said that the Revolution was necessary to freedom and that the Civil War was a necessity. Yet it took the lives of a million men, the best we had. It was not so much the mere thought, the sentiment, that these men died, but the fact that they and their descendants, strong men and women, who ought to be are not. Thus the cutting off of strong life everywhere weakens a nation, inevitably. The greatest political good is peace and justice, and the Christian virtues are industry, sobriety, kindliness.

In the closing address Dr. Jordan took for his subject “The Strength of Being Clean." It was an inspiring appeal to purity and temperance in all things. The thought that was repeated over and over was the danger of unearned happiness. The inevitable law of compensation makes happiness of that kind impossible in the end. Every artificial elation must be followed by a corresponding depression. He admitted that one person could endure certain dissipation longer than another, and that each individual must decide that for himself. But he urged teachers to be honest with themselves. The strength of the Puritans was not so much in their abstemious

The Evansville meeting was a very close second to the one at Logansport, as regards numbers, and quite its equal as regards helpfulness and interest. The address of Superintendent W. H. Wiley, president of the association, upon the subject "The Teacher's Opportunity," was a careful and thoughtful review of the teacher's place and influence in America to-day. He pointed out how the work of teaching has developed into a profession, and how progress is attended by both influence and responsibility. The teacher has grown by the criticisms directed against him. He has been ready to accept and encourage reform, and has eagerly, persistently, sought to initiate and lead reforms. He has learned that the great problems of education must be solved by the teacher. Due attention was given to the teachers' opportunity for promoting good citizenship. "The great questions now agitating the public mind as well as those which must arise in the future will be largely settled by the character of the education now being given the children. There is unbounded opportunity for the teacher of to-day to have the rising generation enlarge and elevate its ideals-to strive for the attainment of better things, set at distances plainly visible and within reasonable certainty of achievement." speaker was inclined to believe that the time may be near when all the partial solutions of educational problems shall insure full and rounded ideals of achievement.

The

Habits and their formation was the subject of Dr. John Dewey's opening lecture. He said that any normal habit grows out of a natural instinct. The child is an explorer from infancy; its instincts are expressed in habits. The impulse comes from within. "Drill," as a means of forming habit, is wrong because the directing

power is outside the child. The child's language habit should be the spontaneous expression of its own impulses. In the Dewey experiment school in Chicago certain social and industrial occupations are made the central thing. There is no formal attempt to teach reading, spelling, number, etc., but these are all learned incidentally in the informal study and conversations relating to these centers of interest.

In his evening address Dr. Dewey spoke of "Pending Educational Problems." He began by pointing out that the successive closings of the centuries have been quite generally marked by great events in the world's history. The end of the fifteenth century was a time of great discovery. The end of the sixteenth marked the decline of unprogressive Spain as a world power, and the advance of the progressive Anglo-Saxon. The closing seventeenth century saw the establishment of the rights of the people, and a century later came the French revolution. The closing nineteenth century witnesses the activity of many great forces, not least of which in our own country, is the prominence of universal education. The establishment of this principle has settled once for all the question of privileged classes. The state is dominant, and the state supports free and universal education. There is an enormous investment in buildings and equipment of every sort, and a constant lavish expenditure to support education. What are we going to do with it? The speaker recognized the existence of three important problems:

(1) How to make the school a social organization, how to deal with it as a form of community life closely related to the family, the church, business and politics. Courses of study are being modified so as to help accomplish this. Manual training and other studies which connect directly with outside life are introduced. Methods are modified so that the child can bring his whole mind-his usual experiences and interests, to school with him instead of only a fraction of it. In the kindergarten children learn to make social combinations and adjustments. The learning of leadership and subordination is thought as important as the information acquired or the skill attained. In the grades and high schools, self government is taught and practiced. Teachers are realizing that besides tasks and recitations there are the lessons of social cooperation and mutual endeavor. There must be a closer relation between the intellectual life and the life of action. Some complain that the schools prepare for scholarship rather than for life. Others reply that the de

(2)

mand for utility is narrowing and commercial. The duty of the school is to sweeten and enlighten toil. It must combine culture and utility. (3) The child's individuality is to be recognized. This must not conflict with the social or community life of the school. But in a democracy, we can not train future citizens by making the school a monarchy. Suppression must give way to expression. The order kept by the teacher must yield to the order of the child's own interests and motives. Work of the pouring-in kind must be replaced by active, constructive work that makes the child a doer. problem of education is thus the problem of life itself. Every nation, every century, every generation sets up its own ideal and its chief problem is to work it out. Education is now the chief instrument. Its influence is greater than that of law, politics or business. The spirit in which the school is carried on determines more than anything else whether a people shall be successful in realizing its highest aims.

The

Dr. Dewey's closing lecture was upon "The Place of the Imagination in Education." It was exceedingly simple and filled with practical suggestion. He used the word imagination as the power to call up or image what has been before presented to the senses. He held that the power should be cultivated, and that its practice should go hand in hand with sense-perception. Some people-some children are visual or eye-minded, others are ear-minded, others are motor-minded. The teacher should know the prevailing faculty of each pupil and recognize it in teaching him. The child has not much pure will. If we understand his disposition we may suggest action to direct his conduct. Thus to know by what means a child is influenced should suggest methods and means for both mental direction and moral control.

The lectures by Miss Sarah Louise Arnold were of the kind that appeal to the sentiments and send teachers back to their schools resolved to reform many faults and errors. She made it clear that there are worse things in school than whispering and worse things on the playground than snow-balling. Her remarks on the per cent. system must have convinced many teachers that there are things besides the recitation that need to be considered in "marking" a pupil's standing.

Her ideal is a time when the diploma

The programs both at Logansport and Evansville were too much crowded. If it is necessary to make them long in order to provide against possible failures then have it clearly understood that certain numbers are only contingent.

A steamboat ride of twelve miles to Henderson, Ky., and return was a delightful feature of the Evansville meeting which many teachers enjoyed.

The physical culture exercises given by the various grades of the Evansville schools were much commended by the visiting teachers.

The southern association next year goes to Seymour. Superintendent Charles N. Peak of Princeton is president.

-James Mackintosh

SOME POINTS AND A QUERY.

When I call teachers to account for unsatisfactory results in arithmetic, now-a-days, they simply refer me, with quiet dignity and somewhat injured air, to the pronouncements of certain educational journals and to the creeds of certain eminent scholars, which, I must confess, seem to say that teachers need not hereafter concern themselves about skill and accuracy in the fundamentals of arithmetic; that results, in the ordinary sense of that term, are but poor tests of a teacher's success; that the measure of success is to be determined by a sort of ethicopsychological course of reasoning (in homeopathic doses) that helps to make every teacher feel cheerful and happy, no matter what tests and examinations may indicate as to results in multiplication, or division, or fractions, or percentage; in short, that we do not teach arithmetic in order that boys and girls may acquire mathematical skill and accuracy, but that they may, by means of a semi-mathematical massage, become developed and rounded in certain (?) cycles of mental and ethical activity.

This year a teacher was to discuss, at a teachers' conference, "Why pupils who complete a systematic course of vocal music in the public schools, are not able to read ordinary music at sight." In view of the fact named above, I was not greatly surprised to find that she chose to discuss school music in general, not touching the point in question except at the conclusion of her excellent remarks to say, that the purpose of vocal music in the schools should not be the acquisition of a knowledge of musical forms and principles and of skill in reading music, but ethical and æsthetic culture, et cetera,

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Now without taking any text, I should like to preach, to sensible, conscientious teachers a little sermon. Too many of us have been overwhelmed in the tide accompanying the spread of psychology, child study, correlation, apperception, preservative adjustments, categorical imperatives, and numerous doctrines of the "Newest Education." We have striven to hide our

disinclinations and imperfections behind a mass of unintelligible verbiage, poor theorizing, and bad pedagogy. But as sure as time rolls on, the day of the three R's is coming again to the confounding of the careless teacher. The "three R's" will include systematic training in music, and there will be a stronger demand than ever before, that pupils shall become fitted to read ordinary music at sight, just as they shall be expected to read the best English authors at sight. The purpose of singing at opening exercises, and of songs at recreation periods, is vastly different from the purpose of singing at the hour allotted on the daily program to "systematic instruction in music." Music has a thousand values in the school-æsthetic, ethical, spiritual disciplinary, but, that pupils may receive the largest benefits from its study and influence, they must learn to read music readily-not as an end, of course, but as a means to an end.

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I can not speak of other subjects of the school curriculum,-I wish that there were time and opportunity to do so-but as to music, let it be known to teachers generally, that the principle here suggested forms a part of the creed of the best supervisors of music and of the best teachers throughout the land. Why then, are results so meagre,-why do not the pupils go out from our schools well-prepared to enter the service of the volunteer choirs of any of our churches, and to read music successfully in the varied fields?

This question has been put in these columns before; we now invite brief, practical answers to this practical query, that we may have a profitable symposium. Send answers at once to the editor of this department at the address above.